‘Welcome to retail’: Customer films supermarket employee ‘working her a** off’ while 5 other workers stand around
A TikTok user's video has gone viral and sparked discussion after demonstrating what they claim is a work imbalance between employees and management.
In a video with over 1.9 million views, TikTok user Leighton (@leightonescobarha) shows five workers at an Asda store whom he identifies as managers looking at products on a shelf. The TikToker then pans to a single worker preparing food.
“5 managers and this poor woman working her ass off,” writes Leighton in the text overlaying the video.
@leightonescobarha ♬ original sound - Leighton Escobar Hayes
It’s unclear whether the five aforementioned workers are actually managers (many commenters claimed that their uniforms indicate that they are not managers). Still, the premise struck a chord with TikTokers.
“I bet this lady is better at her job than those five put together,” one user wrote.
“Worked at woollies for years. this is true. a lot of managers just walk around talking looking important getting paid double what the workers do,” another added.
“It’s always the hard working staff that don’t get recognised!!” exclaimed a third.
The feeling that lower-level employees do more than their managers is common in the United States. In fact, a 2017 study found that 80% of surveyed workers found management to be unnecessary. The study also found that almost half of the surveyed managers never actually received management training.
On TikTok, a few commenters had specific complaints about Asda, the U.K. chain in which the video was filmed.
“Asda have more staff stood around doing nothing [than] I have [ever] seen in any supermarket,” shared a user.
“It's the same in my Asda, all stood around and one sat at the checkout, and half of the self serve checkouts not working,” claimed a second.
That said, several users noted that this problem was not unique to Asda.
As one user put it, “Welcome to retail.”
We’ve reached out to Leighton via TikTok comment and Asda via the media contact form.
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